random apocrypha

The Coffs Harbour motel was most generous with breakfast. Basically I was given two for the price of one. The woman also gave me a banana, and asked if I wanted any avocados, as they had heaps. I ate everything but the banana, which I saved for the top of the big hill.

An inauspicious start to the ride; I had to walk up the last section of the road up Mount Browne. Either I’m less fit or I’m carrying too much stuff (or both). I got to Coramba at 8:40 – that’s about 1:12. Last year, it only took about 1 hour, if I recall correctly. I also have a bit of a speed wobble that probably results from an unbalanced load at the front.

I arrived in Grafton after about 7 hours on the road – that’s 14 point something km/h. There was a hellish westerlyÂ and it was hot, hot hot (tar was melting). Coming out of Glenreagh, I met a German cyclist who had left Germany in August and was ridng around the world. After cycling across eastern Europe and the subcontinent and Australia, he’s off to NZ and then the Americas. We didn’t chat as he said that it was too hot for further conversation.

Grafon is dead on a Sunday – none of the numerous pubs open except for one new one. After collapsing for a while with some panadol, I sought it out, had a beer (purely medicinal) and a meal, then went and collapsed almost before the sun had set. I guess that riding in the country on a weekend is not the best option when you need to find something decent and filling to replenish you after a long day.

Update:Here is the MotionBased data, and here is the GoogleMaps equivalent